This invention concerns preventing theft of gas by customers who seek to bypass the gas meters which utility companies provide to monitor gas usage by customers. In a typical installation, the gas utility company runs a gas line into a customer's residence or place of business. Within the customer's building, a gas meter is provided to measure and record the amount of gas which is drawn by the customer through the gas line. The gas meter is connected to the gas line by two exposed threaded fittings.
In the past, unscrupulous persons who wanted to steal gas would unscrew the two connection nuts by which the gas meter was inserted in the gas line. Then, the space between the two connection nuts would be bridged by the use of a bypass pipe. The gas would then be drawn by the customer appreciated that the construction as set forth and claimed in the instant application is unique and in no way anticipated by the art of record taken alone or in combination.
It is the purpose of this invention to provide an inexpensive, easy to use, lock assembly for use by utilities to prevent the unauthorized disconnection of at least one of the exposed connection nuts. By the use of this invention, it will become extremely difficult for a customer to bypass his gas meter without being easily detected by the meter reader.
Applicant experimented with a device like that shown in FIG. 5 of the drawings. This device proved unsatisfactory in use because it could be pried apart and opened with two screwdrivers. The FIG. 5 device roughly resembled the improved lock assembly shown in the remaining drawings of this application except that the FIG. 5 device had no ears extending from the bottom of the male shroud. Therefore, a thief could insert two screwdrivers between the male and female shrouds and then spread the shrouds apart. This exposed the lock assembly to attack and defeat by the thief. The present invention eliminates this fatal weakness of the prior art.